Loading Cast Bullets

[brad925]

Tomorrow will be the first time i have ever loaded a cast boolit. Just wondering if i should seat them out to bore riders or back them off from touching the rifling a thou or so? This is in a B.C 45-70 shooting a Lee 405HB boolit.

[geargnasher]

My personal guideline is to seat them so that they are firmly jammed into the rifling upon closing the action, but not so firmly that the cartridge de-boolits or puts undue stress on the exractor mechanism when unloading and unfired round. The difference between jacketed and cast is that the cast engraves much more easily (being softer), and the powder gets a little bit better ignition and the boolit gets damaged less if it doesn't have to "jump" to reach something solid. This is generally not a safe practice with jacketed due to the hard start against the rifling causing an initial pressure spike, so something like ten-thousandths off the rifling is in order. Different projectile, different loading philosophy.

Gear